Professionals say that every day, about 1 in 4 Americans, or 83 million people, breathe in air that isn’t good.
Last year, many Americans had to deal with bad air quality because of the fires in Canada, which sent smoke even further into the US. This made the air quality in New York the worst it has been since the 1960s. It’s only going to get worse over time, as many experts say 125 million more Americans will be subject to bad air quality.
There was a similar event many years ago that led to the signing of the Clean Air Act in the 1970s. This time, though, the problem might be harder to solve because it has to do with climate change as well as pollution from people.
The rise in bad air quality can have many bad effects. “We’re essentially adding back more early deaths and heart attacks.” “The economy is losing productivity because people aren’t working outside as much,” said Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research at First Street.
People are already planning to leave places with bad air quality or where flames might happen.
“We’ve seen very early statistical signals in our own analysis that people are moving away from the smoke that comes from wildfire,” said Porter. If people move away, property values drop because the place isn’t as desirable. Then, as the area loses its appeal, tax revenues are directly affected because property prices are going down.
Experts say that the number of days with bad air quality will likely keep going up over time. The amount of particulate matter in the air is rising because of things like climate change, higher temperatures, and wildfires. These things can have a big impact on both the environment and the air quality.
Experts also talked about what people can do to stay safe on days when the air quality is bad, like closing their windows and doors and staying inside as much as possible.
